Science Olympiad takes state

Knowledge Bowl. DECA. And now Science Olympiad.Camas High School students continue to bring home the honors. The most recent one was when the Science Olympiad team competed and won the state championship at Eastern Washington University for the second year in a row.

The Papermakers sacked the competition with a 40 point lead over second place team Union High School. Bothell High School, near Seattle, came in third.

“This was quite a team effort, and a very well-fought tournament by many good teams,” advisor Ron Wright said. “Twenty-nine students medaled at this tournament, the most we have ever had bring home individual medals from state.”

The Camas team placed first in four events, which were protein modeling, rocks and minerals, astronomy and gravity vehicle.

Science Olympiad is described as “a track meet for the mind.” Competitions consist of a series of 23 team events in each division.

Each year, a portion of the events are rotated to reflect the ever-changing nature of genetics, earth science, chemistry, anatomy, physics, geology, mechanical engineering and technology. Emphasis is placed on active, hands-on group participation, according to the Science Olympiad website.

The state competition was held Saturday, April 14 at Eastern Washington University in Cheney.

“One of the more remarkable facts about this year is that we have only two seniors on our team,” Wright said.

The team will travel to Orlando, Fla. for the National Tournament in May. Students who earned medals at state include the following:

One medal: Jonathan Liao, Cierra LeBlanc, Jonathan Ho, Yun Teng, Jon Bartlett, Eric Kuhta, Isabel Lee, Meghal Sheth, Tim Liu, Reesab Pathak, Shicon Wen, Maddie Stevenson, Conor Daniels, Edie Myers-Powers and Erica Lee.

Two medals: Vaughn Okerlund, Brie Islarde and Rebecca Hamilton.

Three medals: Joanna Liao, Evan Roche, Eugene Hsu, Eliot Shoemaker, Rachel Fadlovich, Noah Wachlin, Tim Grote, Katelynne Jones, Triton Pitassi.

Four medals: Jake Hsu, Marcus Bintz and Sophie Shoemaker.